Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is planning to gradually discontinue the practice of sending monthly bills by post, as the company is going to promote sending of bills by e-mail and SMS.
The step is being taken to reduce the cost of postage and to increase the accuracy of bill delivery.
“There are nearly 39 lakh fixed line customers in Kerala, and the cost of sending bills every month comes to around `2 crores. At present, the bills for post-paid mobile phone customers are also being sent through post offices. There was a period when the surrendering rate of land phones was high. However, with the increase in broadband connections, this rate has come down. Since most people now have access to e-mail and cellphones, we hope that the move will be successful,” BSNL officials said.
E-mail billing is a feature of the new Call Detail Record (CDR) billing system of BSNL. The company has been using CDR billing system for landline and broadband connections for around one year in Kerala. CDR provides next-generation services such as IPTV, Voice-over Internet Protocol or Video-on-Demand on a single billing platform. This ensures more transparency when compared to the old meter-based system and generates call logs similar to mobile networks. The CDR system allows carry-over of balances to the next bill. “The CDR system can provide the BSNL bills by SMS to any mobile, irrespective of the service provider of the customer,” a BSNL official said.
Consent forms are being distributed to landline customers at every BSNL service centre in the state to obtain the assent of customers for receiving bills by e-mail. The form also states that printed bills would not be sent by post once the e-billing commences.
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